It’s clear from the opening scene, a flurry of activity as street vendors proffer nosegays and buskers perform amid the arrival of opera patrons, that the creative team, under precise direction by Christopher Clark, pulled out all the stops. Not only is this “My Fair Lady” a visual treat, but the production excels with beautiful vocals and flows with efficient authority.
DeLaney Westfall makes a charming Eliza, balancing headstrong spunk with touching vulnerability. Westfall should command the stage from the first moment, and she’s a bit lost amid the bustle of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” but she begins to radiate in “Just You Wait.” She possesses a soaring soprano to pull off the big finales of numbers like “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “Show Me.” The role requires her to get two English accents exactly right, and Westfall doesn’t disappoint.
Unparalleled for its unsentimentallity, “My Fair Lady” requires just the right sort of curmudgeonly Henry Higgins, and Mark Knowles competently fills the role. For a distinguished phonetician, Knowles’ elocution is mushy, but his talk-songs, which he wisely chooses to not monologue to music, are splendid. He proves to be a skilled actor in a demanding role. The stiff camaraderie between Knowles and Bruce Bredeson, terrific as his fellow bachelor Pickering, is just right.
As Eliza’s besotted suitor Freddy, Adam Dietlein sings a beautiful, stunning rendition of “On the Street Where You Live.” Dispelling concern that a theater associate would land the showcase role, Dietlein leaves the audience wishing he had been written a second solo equaling the lushly romantic song — an impossible task without divine intervention.
David W. Stensrud is a spirited and jovial Alfred P. Dolittle. Stensrud inhabits the role of Eliza’s raffish father with great aplomb, making “With a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time” yet two additional high points.
Also impressing in their roles are JaNae Gibbs Cottam as the prim housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce, and Darla Davis (the company’s only single-cast performer) as Mrs. Higgins, Henry’s exasperated mother.
While Lerner-Loewe purists will miss the full score, clipped here to lighten the show’s usual three-hour length, the essential elements of the soaring melodies are intact. Arguably, “Rain in Spain,” Eliza’s first triumph, was overly abridged. The orchestrations, albethey taped, are full and pleasing.
The carefully cluttered set of Higgins’ study, well appointed with a speech professor’s period contraptions that are used to great effect, fluidly rises from the stage floor. Each scene change is made quickly and staged imaginatively, showing Clark is no stranger to in-the-round theater-directing.
Jenny Barlow’s choreography is efficient and stylized, though the wonderfully sounding ensemble’s dancing is too often unpolished. “My Fair Lady” taxes the resources of regional theaters, but there could easily be more volume (and more seam pressing) to Suzanne Carling’s Cecil Beaton-derived costuming, though many of the show’s signature flourishes are noted.
Even with its blemishes here and there, Hale’s “My Fair Lady” is a joy and highly recommended — and would that all musicals could fare as grand.
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